James Taranto points out a letter in The New York Times science section on the brouhaha over Harvard President Larry Summers suggestion that maybe men and women are wired differently.

To the Editor:

Many years ago, after taking the G.R.E., I discovered that there were two sets of norms for reporting my math scores - as a woman, and as a "person."

As a woman, my scores were in the high 90th percentile; as a "person" in the mid-80th percentile.

What's the message? That as far as math was concerned, I might be a smart woman, but just an average person. I did not pursue a career in math.

SANDRA ROCHE
New York

As Taranto points out, average would be about the 50th percentile. Maybe if she had taken some more math classes she would've known that.

The other question is this: Did the Times publish Roche's letter knowing that she would be making a fool of herself? You can't be sure, because these are math-challenged journalists we're talking about.